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We believe in what we call the HAPI Compass to building a successful career, which revolves around four points. Point it at your work and your direction comse into view:
- (H)eart: the projects and inspiration that give you goosebumps and will resonate deeply with your customers.
(H)eart HAPI Compass related articles and resources
We believe in what we call the HAPI Compass to building a successful career, which revolves around four points. Point it at your work and your direction comse into view:
Russell Nohelty
- (A)udience: the people orbiting those ideas, ready to championing them, amplify your reach, and fall deeply in love with what you create.
(A)udience HAPI Compass related articles and resources
We believe in what we call the HAPI Compass to building a successful career, which revolves around four points. Point it at your work and your direction comse into view:
Russell Nohelty
- (P)rioritization: Deep focus on one high-leverage move at a time, letting it pay off, then reinvesting the space and cash it creates to widen your runway and buy yourself time for what matters.
(P)rioritization HAPI Compass related articles and resources
We believe in what we call the HAPI Compass to building a successful career, which revolves around four points. Point it at your work and your direction comse into view:
Russell Nohelty
- (I)ncome: Generating the money that sustains your ideal life while fueling the creative work that lights you up.
(I)ncome HAPI Compass related articles and resources
We believe in what we call the HAPI Compass to building a successful career, which revolves around four points. Point it at your work and your direction comse into view:
Russell Nohelty
Plot those four points, and you have more than a framework. You have a living compass. When you start to drift in one of the four points, you can use the others to center yourself again.
What’s a 🦄Hapitalist🦄?
Welcome to Hapitalist, where we’re all about helping you find the balance between the work that feeds your soul and money that pays your bills. The question we are constantly asking is “What if all this business stuff was fun and rewarding?”
Russell Nohelty
(H)eart
Heart is is all about making projects that deeply resonate, both with yourself and your audience. These are some of our most popular articles to help you get in the right.
Resources to help you
While we have an extensive archive of articles about building a writing career, we also offer several other resources to help entrepreneurs build better businesses. Some of these are available for free. Others are available only to paid members. Articles are listed below these resources.
Getting better at making stuff
- How to Write Irresistible Books that Readers Devour
- Write a Great Novel course
- The Hapitalist podcast
- The Complete Creative podcast archive
- How to set up and run an awesome anthology course
- Script library
- Lessons and lectures
- Interview archive
- Complete Creative data archive
Developing a stronger mindset/strategy
- 🎴Hapitalist Business Tarot
- How to Thrive as a Writer in a Capitalist Dystopia
- Publishing is Broken, But It Doesn’t Have to Break Us
- How to Build Your Creative Career
- How to Become a Successful Author
- Advanced Growth Tactics for Authors
- 10x your productivity course
- Write a Great Novel course
- Hapitalist podcast
- The Complete Creative podcast archive
- Complete Creative data archive
Articles
Recalibrating your HAPI Compass
Hi, In this webinar, I walked through how to use the HAPI Compass as a diagnostic tool to identify your actual constraint right now.
Russell Nohelty
What Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu can teach you about happiness
Hi, It’s easy to say you don’t care about winning a gold medal after you’ve already won it. But watching how easily and effortlessly Alysa Liu moves through competition, and life, makes me believe she really means it.
Russell Nohelty
Building a business tarot deck and what it taught me about clarity, systems, and letting go
Listen on the app of your choice
Russell Nohelty
The path of least friction
Hi, I’ve been studying creative businesses for 15+ years, and this is everything I’ve learned about building a successful creative career, condensed into one digestible system.
Russell Nohelty
Are your expectations even realistic given your current reality, tho?
Hi, You pour your soul into the work. You sacrifice time, sleep, and sanity. You finish an impossible thing. Then it comes out, and the world shrugs. That’s what breaks people. Not the work or the rejection, but the gap between what you thought would happen and what actually did.
Russell Nohelty
You're asking the wrong question
This article was originally published on Sub Club.
Russell Nohelty
The art of harnessing chaos magic
Hi, Most successful people I know are masters of chaos magic. I don’t mean they are chaos; I mean they understand how to live in chaos, harness chaos, and use chaos in a restful way.
Russell Nohelty
7 Publishing Mistakes I Made So You Don’t Have to
Hi, I’m always thrilled when “traditional publishing” conferences, like AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs), turn out to be filled with more progressive ideas on how to move the industry forward than I expected.
Russell Nohelty
Writing History When History Is Fragmented
Hi, I don’t publish a lot of comic content on The Author Stack, but more and more authors are talking about making comics from their work. Since I grew up in comics, had my first success in comics, and used comics to build my “empire”, I love when creators write guest posts for The Author Stack that can be actionable and relevant to novelists.
Russell Nohelty
Build the way you’re built
Hi, The internet is overflowing with marketing tactics, funnels, hacks, frameworks, and “proven systems.” If information alone created growth, you’d be drowning in customers by now.
Russell Nohelty
What, not how
Hi, I’ve spent most of my career trying to brute-force the universe. I thought that if I did the work, and not just any work, but the right work, then I’d get what I wanted.
Russell Nohelty
Is this any good? Maybe. We’ll see.
Hi, A man’s son gets kicked off a horse and breaks his leg. People tell him that’s terrible. He says, “Maybe. We’ll see.”
Russell Nohelty
Problem-market fit
Hi, Lining up the right problems with the right solutions is something that everyone deals with all the time. Since this is where I live the vast majority of my existence, I thought I would share with you the three questions I ask all the time, and have been the most helpful reframes inside my community.
Russell Nohelty
Unlocking the transformational power of Ecosystems
Hi, Before you read this, it’s would be very helpful to learn about your SCALE path and your base Ecosystem.
Russell Nohelty
Creating lifelong customers by embedding psychological buying triggers deep into your brand
Hi, At their heart, successful brands create deep connections through layers of meaning and emotional resonance. Just as a garden grows through careful cultivation rather than mechanical planting, brands flourish when each element is thoughtfully developed to engage customers on multiple levels.
Russell Nohelty
A framework for engineering winning days
Hi, How many days a year do you really need to “win” to be successful? Is it 100? 50? Maybe 20?
Russell Nohelty
There is no competition
Hi, Entrepreneurs often talk around how their market is oversaturated.
Russell Nohelty
3 Reasons Why I Love the Return To Small Town Trope
Hi, Having lived in an upstate New York small town briefly as a teenager, I’d pretty much do anything to avoid returning. One of the few upsides of reality is that we can sometimes avoid things we don’t want to do. Fictional characters aren’t so lucky!
Jennifer Hilt
The point of this article doesn’t exist (and yet you'll still read it)
Hi, Mathematically, a point has no dimension, length, width, or depth. It doesn’t occupy space. I’m not a mathematician, but to me that means points don’t exist.
Russell Nohelty
Vibe coding your way to indie success with Chelle Honiker
Can I bribe you to subscribe?
Russell Nohelty
Fun work changed everything
Listen on the app of your choice
Russell Nohelty
Work that feels like cheating
Listen on the app of your choice
Russell Nohelty
Break your biggest blocks: Craft Con highlight reel
Listen/subscribe on Apple
Russell Nohelty
The art of joyful expansion into consumables with Maggie Beeler
Listen/subscribe on Apple
Russell Nohelty
7 steps to thriving as a writer in a changing publishing world
Hi, Jennifer Probst was one of the first seven-figure authors I didn’t know personally who signed up for one of our courses. I remember thinking “Okay, if she doesn’t know me personally and believes in what I’m doing, then maybe I’m not a fraud”.
Russell Nohelty
The Novel Blueprint: Transforming your story from idea to final book
Hi, Every writer remembers their first great idea - that electric moment when a story sparks to life in your imagination, demanding to be told. But between that initial inspiration and a finished novel lies a path that can seem overwhelmingly complex. How do you know if an idea is strong enough to sustain a full book? What makes characters leap off the page? How do you build a world that feels real while serving your story? And once you've written your novel, how do you ensure it reaches the readers who will love it?
Russell Nohelty
Why you must risk the bad to experience the good
Hi, I’m going to tell you a secret. One you probably already know deep down, but can’t quite bring yourself to believe: If you want to be loved—truly, wildly, obsessively loved—you also have to be okay with being hated.
Russell Nohelty
Tech companies lied to us, and it's causing a creative crisis
Hi, One of the great failings of tech over the decades has been the idea that the democratization of the internet meant that anyone can be successful in anything for any reason. All you have to do is make a thing and everyone will love you.
Russell Nohelty
Taking a knockout punch without getting knocked down
Hi, Sometimes it doesn't work. You make assumptions and it turns out you weren't just wrong, you were laughably, calamitously, epicly, ruinously wrong; the kind of wrong that could actually bankrupt you or cause serious harm to yourself and/or those you love.
Russell Nohelty
How to Hook Readers by Stealing Television’s Binge-Worthy Secrets
Hi, Today I am so excited because one of my favorite humans, Ines Johnson, who writes one of my favorite Substacks, Ines Johnson is having a Breakdown, just released her first craft book on Kickstarter and I love it so much.
Russell Nohelty
How to trick yourself into moving forward as a creator
Hi, This year at a Loscon panel, somebody asked how we can avoid being the internet scapegoat of the day. As a white-het-cis-man there is almost no chance that I will be that person, and I know that, but the crux of my answer was:
Russell Nohelty
The problem circling sustainable productivity (that nobody's talking about)
Hi, The conversation around sustainable productivity and slow growth often emphasizes the personal benefits of aligning work with natural rhythms and patterns, such as reducing burnout, enhancing creativity, and fostering a healthier work-life balance.
Russell Nohelty
The publishing industry is broken, but it doesn't have to break us
Yes, some authors can just write the next book and release a new book every month for months, or sometimes even years...
Russell Nohelty
Yes, writing a great book people read is marketing, too
Hi, Lots of people tell me they hate all marketing and "only want to write the next book" which is wild because, and I know this is gonna get your dander up if you're new to this, but writing the next book is marketing.
Russell Nohelty
What do we owe to each other?
Hi friends,
Russell Nohelty
Lessons in Chemistry: Crafting 2023's Most Popular Read
Anyone who publishes a book hopes for a breakout bestseller—we see them popping up in book clubs like Whack a Mole, and sometimes hand-sold by your best friend and even in the ever-dwindling airport bookstores.
Jennifer Hilt
The new Super Nintendo World at Universal Hollywood is peak late-stage capitalism
Hi friends,
Russell Nohelty
Short circuiting the Substack burnout cycle
Hi friends,
Russell Nohelty
If a tree falls in your front yard...
Last night, a tree branch fell in our front yard, and pretty much mean our whole front yard. I tried to take pictures of it from different angles, but it was just a mass of limbs and leaves.
Russell Nohelty
May December: Tabloids, Trauma and Tolstoy in the Age Gap Trope
All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Jennifer Hilt
How to quiet down your negative self-talk
Hi friends,
Russell Nohelty
Stop sabotaging your book with bad covers and blurbs
Hi I’ve helped a lot of authors fix terrible covers and blurbs over the years. And let’s be real: most bad covers and blurbs don’t come from lack of effort. They come from confusion. Specifically, authors not understanding what their book actually is or who it’s for.
Russell Nohelty
Is it even possible to be a writer AND happy at the same time?
Russell Nohelty
Objectively good and subjectively your jam...
Hi friends,
Russell Nohelty
The universe is dumb and capitalism is nonsense
Sometimes, you need to understand the scope of the problem you are trying to solve, and this article is about showing you the scope of the problem faced by authors and creative writers in the current climate. I have written extensively about how to gain an advantage over capitalism
Russell Nohelty
Publishing is Changing—Why? And how to we take advantage of it
Russell Nohelty
Should you "write short"?
Hi friends,
Russell Nohelty
Helped, Heard, or Hugged? Understanding the true intentions behind what somebody needs when they express themselves
Hi, Did you know that most people don’t actually want to be helped when they share their thoughts online? It might sound surprising, but simply acknowledging someone’s feelings can often be more supportive than offering unsolicited advice. Scrolling through your social media feed, you might find that a simple “that sucks” can be more comforting than an attempt to fix their problem.
Russell Nohelty
Rev up your inciting incident with the Enneagram
Hi, Claire Taylor has done more to improve the quality of my life that any single human who I am not related to by blood, marriage, or business partnership. Several years ago, when I was lost and frustrated, she introduced me to the Enneagram.
Russell Nohelty
"How do you get yourself back on track when you are demotivated and distracted by every shiny object in your line of sight?"
I saw this on social media the other day.
Russell Nohelty
The secrets behind $10k Secrets
Hi, It may not shock you to know that my main mode of growth is through collaborations. Not every collaboration works out, but the ones that do have always given me outmoded growth beyond anything else I’ve tried, and in a 20 year career, I’ve tried a lot of things.
Russell Nohelty
Outward success, inward turbulence
Hi friends,
Russell Nohelty
Most of your best readers haven't even been born yet
Hi friends,
Russell Nohelty
How to use technology and productivity hacks to reclaim your time for things that matter
Hi, I think about whisks a lot. Yes, those kinds of whisks. The ones you use to whip eggs and do basic cooking tasks. Did you know that before the 19th century, whisks were basically just a bunch of sticks and thatch bundled together?
Russell Nohelty
Fling people past you as far and as often as possible.
I’m going to let you in on my biggest growth hack.
Russell Nohelty
Be interesting enough for long enough around enough people
Do you wanna really know how to grow your Substack? There is really only one piece of advice.
Russell Nohelty
How Substack fits into the future of publishing
Russell Nohelty
Letters to villainous ghosts
Hi friends,
Russell Nohelty
Your debut will probably flop
Hi, I have good news for you. Your debut will probably flop, whether you are an indie or trad pubbed. It is almost impossible to get traction for a debut book. So, you can stop worrying about it now.
Russell Nohelty
Tortured genius
Hi, As we toil away in obscurity, it’s normal to fantasize about being a tortured genius who will be appreciated in the future, maybe even after their death, like so many great writers of yesteryear.
Russell Nohelty
You build the structure for your next launch during your current launch
Hi, When people come to me after a poor launch, often even after gathering a big audience, I always ask this question:
Russell Nohelty
Bouncing back: The defining feature of successful creators
Hi, The longer I work in creative industries, the more I’m convinced that one key difference separates successful creators from the rest: the speed of bouncing back after a setback. No matter who you are, at some point, you're going to get punched in the mouth, often more than once at the same time.
Russell Nohelty
I made a weird goal this year...
Hello, It's relatively easy to be grateful and thankful (or at least performative say you are) one day a year. It's considerable harder to make gratitude a way of life, especially when things aren't going your way.
Russell Nohelty
We all deserve unconditional grace and forgiveness
Hi, Recently, my wife and I went out to breakfast. The waitress forgot to put in our order, and we sat there for half an hour before anyone realized. My wife, always compassionate, immediately began trying to find reasons for the mistake: Maybe they’re short-staffed. Maybe the waitress is new. Maybe it’s a bad day.
Russell Nohelty
Charting your writing success path from style to scale
Hi, Creators often ask me what they should be doing to grow their publication, and that is a really, really tricky question to answer, because it kind of relies on how much work you’ve done before this point. Growth isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution; it’s a journey, and your starting point is unique to your experience.
Russell Nohelty
Why writers smash into brick walls, and how to break through them to reach the next level of your career
Hi, At the beginning of your writing journey, growth is easy and everything’s moving quickly. You’re seeing progress, hitting milestones, and the road ahead seems wide open. Then, you smash into a brick wall and it feels like nothing you do can break through it.
Russell Nohelty
The best work of your life might be behind you
Hi, This is a thought experiment.
Russell Nohelty
How partnerships change over time (and why we've been thinking about them all wrong)
Hi, When I first started my career, collaborating with like-minded creators on project like anthologies was one of the most effective ways to grow my audience. We’d pool our resources and audiences, share the spotlight, and get our work in front of readers who loved stories just like ours. Back then, it worked beautifully because no one in the niche really knew who I was and eagerly scooped up my books.
Russell Nohelty
The era of rapid trend cycles in publishing
Hi friends,
Russell Nohelty
How each Author Ecosystem writes to market
Hi, “Write to market” is one of the most common pieces of advice in publishing, and one of the most dangerous.
Russell Nohelty
Unlocking the transformational power of Author Ecosystems
One of the biggest challenges authors face isn’t crafting compelling prose or building a sales funnel. It’s articulating the transformation they offer readers. What do your books do for people? How are they changed after experiencing your world, your characters, your voice?
Russell Nohelty
The Writing Mindset
Hi, One of the best parts of running The Author Stack is connecting with writers who are actually in it building careers, not just chasing dreams. Writers who are doing the unglamorous, everyday work of showing up, creating, tracking, evolving, and finding their own version of success.
Russell Nohelty
The art of sustainable productivity
Hi, For years, I’ve heard the same advice repeated in the entrepreneurship community: create more, ship more, market more. The modern world seems obsessed with churning out content at an ever-increasing pace. But after spending over two decades in this industry, I’ve come to realize we’ve been thinking about productivity all wrong.
Russell Nohelty
When your brain says "write!" but your body says, "nope."
Hi, My wife and I are both chronically ill (and she helped me build the resources for this chapter, which was a huge help). I talk about my thoughts and challenges in this chapter, so I’m not going to go into it here, but it’s…suboptimal, to say the least.
Russell Nohelty
How to Get Actual Feedback from Beta Readers (Not Just 'I Loved It!')
Hi, I get a lot of questions about beta readers — how to find them, how to work with them, and most importantly, how to get feedback that’s actually useful (instead of the classic “I loved it!” with no follow-up).
Russell Nohelty
Wrangling chaos demons
Here’s a secret about editors…
Russell Nohelty
Down and dirty character tricks
Hi, I don’t talk about craft much, but I’ve written over 40 novels, plus produced over 1,000 pages of comics, and regularly work with publishing companies on either their books or mine, so I do understand a lot about story.
Russell Nohelty
Why sequels fail (and how writers can avoid repeating their mistakes)
Hi, I run into writers all the time who say some version of “I’m giving people what they say they want,” or “I’m writing more about my most popular topics, but I can’t replicate my success.” Basically, even when they follow the data and give people what people “want”, they still can’t make anything new pop with thier audience.
Russell Nohelty
Why you must risk the bad to experience the good
Hi, I’m going to tell you a secret. One you probably already know deep down, but can’t quite bring yourself to believe: If you want to be loved—truly, wildly, obsessively loved—you also have to be okay with being hated.
Russell NoheltyCreating Accessible Content: Don’t Miss Out on Connecting with Your Audience
UPCOMING ARTICLE:
Russell Nohelty
How I Accidentally Published an Activity Book For Kids
Hi friends,
Russell Nohelty
Writing Books for Netflix, Disney, Lucasfilm, and More
Hi friends,
Russell Nohelty
How to write about trans people with respect
Hi friends,
Russell Nohelty
Ink and Intent: How Creative Planning Uplifts Authors and Poets
Russell Nohelty
How to reframe capitalism to make sales and marketing work (better) for you
Russell Nohelty
How to build a substantial body of work that allows you to fight imposter syndrome without burning out
Russell Nohelty
How I "evolved" beyond my natural SCALE path
Hi, In my own business, I’m a natural Launcher who took to Kickstarter like a fish to water or a polar bear to hibernation. I’m a world-class hype man who knows how to build excitement around a launch, which has served me well for the last decade.
Russell Nohelty
How to fall in love with book marketing
Russell Nohelty
How to survive as a writer in a capitalist dystopia
Russell Nohelty
How to improve your mental state by embracing neutral thinking
The Author Stack sits at the intersection of craft and commerce, helping writers build more sustainable businesses that allow them to thrive while creating work that lights them up inside. We strive to give authors agency in a world that too often seems intent on stripping it away from them.
Russell Nohelty
Are you seeing things clearly in your writing career?
The Author Stack sits at the intersection of craft and commerce, helping writers build more sustainable businesses that allow them to thrive while creating work that lights them up inside. We strive to give authors agency in a world that too often seems intent on stripping it away from them.
Russell Nohelty
What if the skills that made you a successful writer start to ruin your life?
The Author Stack sits at the intersection of craft and commerce, helping writers build more sustainable businesses that allow them to thrive while creating work that lights them up inside. We strive to give authors agency in a world that too often seems intent on stripping it away from them.
Russell Nohelty
What chronic illness can teach us about conserving our energy for what matters and taking imperfect action
The Author Stack sits at the intersection of craft and commerce, helping writers build more sustainable businesses that allow them to thrive while creating work that lights them up inside. We strive to give authors agency in a world that too often seems intent on stripping it away from them.
Russell Nohelty
How to design a signature series
Hi, It is almost impossible to make money on a stand-alone book. In order to drive ads you need enough read-through to additional titles break even.
Russell Nohelty
How to get a book publishing deal
Hi, The most common question I get asked is how to sign a book publishing deal with a publisher. I’m talking about a good publisher, too, not one of those fly-by-night publishers who accept anything. Those are easy to find. In fact, they’ll usually find you and offer the world on a platter. Don’t publish your book through them under any circumstances. They are only offering you a platter of well-disguised garbage.
Russell Nohelty
Writing nonfiction that resonates so deeply people have no choice but to change
Hi, Not to be cocky, but my nonfiction slaps.
Russell Nohelty
How to write faster without sacrificing quality using dictation
Hi, I never really resonated with dictation until recently. In the past, you had to speak too many specialty marks to get anything usable, and I don’t like saying the word “period” a billion times. Plus, I always spoke too fast for it to understand me, and I wasn’t willing to train it.
Russell Nohelty
It's magic that anything works at all
Hi, It’s a quiet kind of miracle when something actually makes it out into the world. You push this fragile, too-big dream through the clogged gears of life, and for some reason, sometimes, it works.
Russell Nohelty
Did you find what you are looking for? If not, you can use the below to try another section.
Or, you can have yourself a reset by going to our resources page.
Available resources
While we have an extensive archive of articles about building a successful business, we also offer several other resources to help authors build better businesses. Some of these are available for free. Others are available only to paid members.
Russell Nohelty
If you’re ready to dive deeper, we have an extensive list of resources to help help you get your HAPI COMPASS back in alignment.